NYA 2014 Supplementary Report

Transcription

1 NYA 2014 Supplementary Report 1

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3 Table of contents 1. Introduction How we worship How the church spends its money How we can do ministry intergenenerationally How can we support Christians in the Middle East Other parts to the weekend 6.1 Small groups Fun house Workshops Sabbath activities Fundraising masquerade ball Worship Visitors A year as moderator Youth reps Guild Scottish Youth Parliament Conclusion. 72 3

4 1. Introduction The National Youth Assembly (NYA) took place between August 2014 in Gartmore House, near Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire. There were 100 delegates aged years, all with a connection to the Church of Scotland. The NYA is a residential weekend which exists primarily to give young people a voice in decision making at a national level. Alongside this, the weekend allows delegates to gather with other young Christians, build community with each other, learn and worship. The NYA is an event which has evolved throughout the years and is continuing to evolve, striving to best serve the young people who attend and explore ways in which young people have a voice in the Church of Scotland at a national level. The 2014 Assembly had four discussions; how we worship, how the Church spends its money, how we can do ministry intergenerationally and how we can support Christians in the Middle East. Delegates gathered to listen to speakers who were invited to address the Assembly before meeting within their small groups to discuss the issue, and then coming together as one group to share ideas, challenge other points of view and learn from each other. To ensure that this feedback can be used in the future, this supplementary report has been prepared, being the full record of the Assembly. It was simply not possible to include all of the information gathered in the final blue book report so here you will find diagrams, further summaries, quotes, pictures and reflections from delegates of the Assembly. This hopefully allows you to see the breadth of opinion which exists within the Assembly and gives a flavour of what was discussed, highlighting issues which are important for young people in the Church of Scotland. This report is designed to be read alongside the summarised blue book report, expanding on the feedback presented. It is therefore presented in the same order as in the blue book. 4

5 2. How we worship The first of the daily discussions was led by Graham Maule, Jo Love and Graham Fender-Allison and focused on how we worship. The hope for this discussion was to share experiences and ideas of how we worship and then to consider how this could work in our own congregations. 2.1 Initial Reflections The Assembly was introduced to the topic by being asked to reflect on our best worship experience and then to share this in our small groups. There were several different responses made by delegates which demonstrated the diversity of worship experiences within the Church of Scotland. praising and speaking in tongues meditation silence feeling led by the Spirit 2.2 What does worship mean to you? In small groups delegates were asked to consider what worship meant to them. The responses were very varied: Praise in: song, speaking, silence, Sunday School. Any actions or things that you do that recognises the greatness of God. More than what we do in church. Praise through doing. Praise is active. Experiential. Setting aside time to praise God. Taking time out of day-to-day. Consciously making space for God. Music. Singing songs and hymns. Band mix of modern songs/hymns. Organ, CH4, empty church, choir familiar, favourite hymns. 5

6 Worship is unique. Personal. It is very difficult to point out a main point. Often it can be the most surprising circumstances that we take the most from. Sometimes we realise it at the time, sometimes it is not until afterwards. All of our experiences are different in what we take and the different senses are mixed in what is involved. Feeling at ease. Free to express yourself. Welcoming. Supporting. Peace. Taking account of incompatibility. Safe place/harmony. Being able to relax/ not be judged helps us to connect to God (this may be easier or harder in worshipping with people we know). Can be in a familiar or new place. Showing thanks and appreciation to God. Gift to God. Living sacrifice. Glorifying God. Slaves bowing to King. Ascribing worth to God when we worship we ascribe everything we are. Emotional. Communication with God. How to relate to God. Time to connect with God in a more conscious way it s more than going through the motions making connections is worshipping. Closeness with God. Having relationship with God. Asking for forgiveness. Trying to understand the nature of God? Finding out about God and yourself. Spiritual. Intense. Wisdom. Worship is shared but can also be on your own. Insular in that the deepest worship is personal/private at that time. Ongoing never-stopping. Constant, not scheduled. More than scheduled worship. Spontaneous. Whole life. Dedicational. Not a light switch. Journey. Minister in a pulpit. Traditional structure good to have tradition but also mix of other stuff. Structured same every week. Rituals. Fun/uplifting. Love. 6

7 2.3 Debriefing Worship Five elements of worship were suggested: colour, symbol, sound, silence and movement. A service of worship was then conducted with delegates asked to think throughout if and how the five elements were present and aided the experience. Following the service a time of debrief was held with delegates asked to critique the experience. I understand the point of it, but I feel, certainly in this sort of environment, that last night and today we were handed a symbol that we hadn t made ourselves, and therefore, for me personally, it didn t mean anything, but it was meant to represent something. If you don t see the symbolism, you perhaps feel a bit awkward. I don t what to say it didn t work, because I'm sure it worked for some people, but I found the Opening Responses a bit difficult; saying Oh yes He did and Oh no He didn t, because it assumed a certain amount of Biblical knowledge. I want to take the opportunity to thank you, because I think you explained 7

8 it all, and it explained it all perfectly for me. I m just coming as someone who s just joined the church, and the Bible and church is very new to me, so I felt very stupid. But what I did like, was when you introduced the music, because sometimes in church I feel like I m not connecting with the song and getting to know the words. For the skit, it s obvious for people who are around church life that you d be familiar with the woman with the two coins. But if you weren t familiar with that, you d think that was a really cool drama but not know the biblical connection. We shouldn t stop having the sketch, but have a description of where it s coming from a source material and something beyond just the Bible! It was broadly thought by NYA members that the worship came across as pre-packaged with our only participation in the cooking process being to select which element we identified with most. It was also considered that those struggling to link with any of the elements could perhaps, feel awkward and worship would end up unintentionally being exclusive rather than inclusive. 2.4 Reflections on NYA worship experiences Reflecting on experiences of worship at NYA events delegates raised several points that can be learnt from as they are relevant to worship in other settings too. Having just one style of worship throughout a weekend doesn t work as coming from different congregations people are used to different things. Perhaps the worship music needs to be taken from many different styles such as Praise band, Fischy Music, Hymns and worldwide music. This would allow the delegates to feel comfortable with some things whilst getting new experiences that could be taken back to their own congregations. It was felt that harnessing the talents of those attending worship services 8

9 (in this instance NYA delegates) by getting them more involved with things such as a praise would be beneficial. This would mean gathering all the willing and talented people together, either throughout the year or over the weekend and enabling them to be involved in the planning and delivery of different worship services. It was thought that there should be a mixture of loud and quiet times and a balance of corporate and individual focuses throughout the weekends worship to allow everyone, regardless of personal preference, to have the opportunity to meet with God. Fellowship within a group often brings a sense of belonging, however, allowing the quiet times would mean that those who are shy can still have just as much time with God. The symbols used during some of the worship at NYA 2014 confused people as they felt it wasn't properly explained. With this in mind delegates suggest that at times it would be appropriate for people may make some of their own symbols. This would allow everyone to understand why they are making it and could be done simply before the service began. 9

10 2.5 Worship within the Church of Scotland Asked to think about how we should worship within the Church of Scotland delegates felt it was encouraging that everyone from a variety of congregations and places came together at NYA to worship. Some other responses included: Worship can be divisive. It s not something we can define as a church. Different folks connect in different ways. Dependent on congregation. Very subjective cannot please everyone. Beauty of a national church represented in every parish and able to be different. Each congregation should do their own thing. No one way fits all. There s variety within the Church of Scotland if one church doesn t suit you try another one down the road! Passionately, enthusiastically, whole heartedly, and with everything you are. More joy! More smiling! More excitedness! Coming together to meet the individual needs of specific congregations, sensitive of: age, young children, flexibility church without walls. Accessibility of church to people. Age specify the worship, then come together. Communal aspect is crucial for worship. Intergenerational. Discussion near the end of the Service. Asking questions, interjecting. Interactive sermon challenged to discuss it. Gradual change within church, going towards meeting on other nights of the week. We should worship at other times and other places. Taking worship outside and using the environment. Focus on going out/being a community, rather than worrying about getting bums on seats on Sundays. Tables and chairs in circles rather than rows. Creating a safe physical space will create a spiritual place. Why do we have to sit down the whole time? Let kids run around, let adults wander around. 10

11 Ministers should be enabled to visit different churches more often (partaking in worship rather than leading) to experience different styles of Worship. How we train ministers is more important than ever! Fellowship built into Service. Fellowship is key. There should be something distinguishable in how ministers dress, although some of the fully formal outfits could be off-putting to some people. Could be dependent on the type of service. Someone on hand to explain what to do during Service if you are new. More understanding of new people and encouragement! Minsters use of language can sometimes be misleading and unhelpful. 2.6 Worship resources Delegates were then asked to reflect on the worship resources that were available. The NYA generally felt that the resources on the Church of Scotland and Resourcing Mission websites are useful however things could be added. Some of the delegate s responses from reflecting on this included: It would be useful if there was more information on how to lead worship ourselves. It would be useful to have ways of adapting different types of worship into smaller groups, for example starting it out at a youth club then gradually introducing it to a Sunday service Some churches are quite set in their ways, so if you approach the minister who s been there for 25 years it can cause a problem. Some resources available to help deal with that sort of situation would be really helpful. 2.7 Worship in the future The Assembly acknowledge that society has progressed dramatically in 11

12 recent years and the Church needs to play catchup. In schools and many work places open discussion is encouraged. When we discuss and question issues, we gain a wealth of knowledge and also an understanding of how others think and perceive ideas. Delegates supported the idea of ministers including discussion during services, perhaps by having a question and answer session. Finally, delegates discussed the use of space within our church buildings for worship. There was a general consensus that pews were no longer practical and flexible seating allowed a greater variety of styles of worship to be offered. The use of physical space to create a spiritual environment should not be overlooked. The NYA felt that worship could be divisive and recognising that this is a sensitive issue, we would encourage congregations to respond to differing views about worship in a delicate manner. 12

13 3. How the church spends its money The second discussion session to take place was looking at how the church should spend its money. Over the past six years the nations interest and understanding of financial matters has increased greatly with more questions asked and more clarity demanded from all organisations including financial institutions, charities and everyone in between. The Council of Assembly recently set up the joint working group on strategic funding and resource allocation, seeking to consider both how funding is raised for the Church s national activities and how it is best spent. Having a discussion on how the Church spends its money on a national level, therefore seemed appropriate. 3.1 Congregational offerings The Assembly was introduced to the topic by being asked to consider what the money from congregational offerings goes towards. The Assembly demonstrated a good knowledge of the general items that you would expect to see such as the upkeep of the physical buildings. Other suggestions were that some of the money could be spent on resources that the church may use for things like Sunday School or Youth Fellowship and other resources such as hymn books. An amount of the offerings may also go towards travel expenses or similar expenses that may be needed for the work of the congregation. The assembly were able to demonstrate they knew that the money people put into the offering plate helps a lot of things in and around the church, in the congregation but also at Presbytery and national levels. 3.2 Ministry and Mission allocations On learning how the money received from the Ministry and Mission allocations is distributed for the work of the national councils and committees, around half of the delegates were surprised that 86% is assigned to the Ministries Council with only 14% being assigned for 13

14 everything else. There is a need for more ministers in my church, so I think 86% is a good figure. Don t know how many ministers etc there are if a lot, 86% is fair we need to pay them but 14% isn t a lot for everything else. 86% is really high. 50% would be cool or 40% or 55%. Enabling ministry is important but should it get 86%? Engaging with society is as important. Without ministry you can t engage with society and vice versa they need each other. 3.3 Funding the core priorities of the church In small groups delegates were challenged to consider how they would allocate the money the national church receives based on the core priorities of the church. Each group presented their findings in various forms which was elaborated upon in discussion. Many groups felt that the core priorities overlapped quite a lot and grouped them accordingly and split the money based around these larger groupings of priorities Group A We found the 12 core principles a little bit difficult to work with, we felt there was a lot of overlap. We decided to change it and came up with three principles: Helping others, Promoting skills and Spreading the word. We gave 50% to Helping Others (Caring for creation, Serving the vulnerable, Renewing church structures and practices, Promoting reconciliation, Exercising priority for the poor). We gave 15% to Promoting Skills: (Celebrating our place in the world church, Releasing the gifts of all the people, Developing leadership). We gave 35% to Spreading the Word: (Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland, Making disciples, Engaging with society, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness). 14

15 35% Helping others 50% Promoting skills Spreading the word 15% Group B We also thought that the sections could be linked together into individual chunks. We came up with 5. The biggest section Leadership got 54% (Developing leadership, Releasing the gifts of all the people, Renewing church structures and practices). We felt if we had this in place it would feed in further down. 27% went to Discipleship (Making disciples, Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland, Exercising priority for the poor, Serving the vulnerable). 10% went to Society engagement (Promoting reconciliation, Engaging with society). 7% went to Creation (Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness, Caring for creation) and 2% went to World Church (Celebrating our place in the world church). 2% 11% 7% Leadership Discipleship 28% 52% Scociety engagement Creation World Church 15

16 3.3.3 Group C Our first group was Charity, which got 40% (Renewing church structures and practices, Caring for creation, Exercising priority for the poor, Serving the vulnerable). Our second group was People which got 30% (Promoting reconciliation, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness, Releasing the gifts of all the people, Developing leadership). Our final group was Fishing, to develop efficient mission, which got 30% (Engaging with society, Celebrating our place in the world church, Making disciples, Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland). 30% 40% Charity People Mission 30% Group D We split the money into 5 groups. Church and ministers got 45% (Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland), Charity got 6% (Exercising priority for the poor and Serving the vulnerable) - that seems harsh, but we were thinking there are so many charities people can give to and giving to the church is giving to charity. The World got 15% (Caring for creation, Celebrating our place in the world church). People got 17% (Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness, Releasing the gifts of all the people). Society got 17% (Promoting reconciliation, Engaging with Society). 16

17 17% Church and Ministers Charity 17% 45% The World People 15% 6% Society Group E We grouped several under the heading making disciples which got 70%, (Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness, Engaging with society, Exercising priority for the poor, Serving the vulnerable, Promoting reconciliation). We figured if you did all these things to interact, then you would be making disciples. We gave 15% to Developing leadership, 4% to Releasing the gifts of all the people, 3% to Caring for creation, 4% to Celebrating our place in the world church and 4% to Renewing church structures and practices. Discipleship 4% 3% 4% 4% Developing leadership 15% 70% Releasing the gifts of all the people Renewing church structures and practices Caring for creation Celebrating our place in the world church 17

18 3.3.6 Group F We started putting things in a moral hierarchy 55% to Enabling ministry (which includes minister s stipends) because by doing that we can release people s gifts and discover life in all its fullness (Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland, Making disciples, Releasing the gifts of all the people, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness). 10% for Promoting reconciliation and 10% for Developing leadership, because that will give us good relationships at all levels. 5% for Serving the vulnerable and 5% for Exercising priority for the poor. 5% to Engaging with society and 5% for Celebrating our place in the world church, because that is facilitated by good relationships. 2.5% for Renewing church structures and practices and 2.5% for Caring for creation. 10% 10% 5% Enabling ministry Leadership & reconcilliation Poor & vulnerable 20% 55% World & society Church & creation Group G We decided which ones we felt were most important, and set aside a section for each of these different priorities. The highest priorities we gave 60% (Serving the vulnerable, Developing leadership, Exercising priority for the poor, Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland). We then gave 30% to the middle priorities (Releasing the gifts of all the people, Making disciples, Engaging with society, and Renewing church structures and practices). 18

19 Finally we gave 10% to the lowest priorities (Caring for creation, Promoting reconciliation, Celebrating our place in the world church, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness). 10% High priorities 30% Middle priorities 60% Low priorities Group H We did 4 different sections: 50% to Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland and 20% to Serving the vulnerable. We gave 5% to Engaging with society, 5% to Promoting reconciliation and 5% to Exercising Priority for the poor. Then we gave 2% to Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness, 2% to Making disciples and 2% to Developing leadership. And we gave 1% to caring for creation, 2% to Renewing Church structures and practices, 4% to Celebrating our place in the world church and 2% to Releasing the gifts of all the people. 6% 9% Ministry 15% 70% Engaging society Discipleship & leadership Church and world 19

20 3.3.9 Group I We took the list originally given and cut some pieces out. We were looking at this from a local budget point of view as opposed to including M&M. We took some things that could be under M&Ms remit and thought we don t need to deal with that. We have priorities in terms of high, medium and low. 20% to Serving the vulnerable, 20% to Exercising priority for the poor, 15% to Making disciples, 10% to Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland, 10% to Developing leadership, 10% to Renewing church structures and practices, 10% to Releasing the gifts of all the people and 5% to Engaging with society. 20% 10% 10% 5% Serving the vulnerable 20% Priority for the poor Discipleship Ministry 20% Leadership & gifts Church structures 15% Engaging society Group J To Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland and Developing leadership we gave a third of the budget 16.5% each, because we thought if those areas were strong, it would lead into some other areas. We gave Making disciples 9%, Exercising priority for the poor 7%, Promoting reconciliation 7%, Serving the vulnerable 8%, Caring for creation 8%, Engaging with society 6%, Releasing the gifts of all the people 6%, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness 6%, Renewing church structures and practices 6%, and Celebrating our place in the world church 4%. We 20

21 thought they were important but didn t need the biggest financial investment. Ministry Serving the vulnerable 8% 4% 16% Priority for the poor Leadership 6% Engaging society 7% 6% 8% 7% Gifts of all people Discipleship Church structures 9% 6% 6% 17% Promoting reconciliation Fullness of life Creation World church Group K We didn t divide the priorities into sections. We spent a lot of time trying to work out what each thing actually was! We decided the most important thing was serving the vulnerable, which we gave 20%, as it s a key part of reconciliation. We gave Exercising priority for the poor 13%, Engaging with society 12%, Caring for creation 9%, Renewing church structures and practices 8%, Promoting reconciliation 7.5% we considered it important but wasn t sure how much money it should get. We gave Releasing the gifts of all the people 7%, Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland 6.5%, Developing leadership 6%, Making disciples 5%, Celebrating our place in the world church 4%, and Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness 2%. 21

22 Ministry 2% 9% 4% 6% Serving the vulnerable Priority for the poor 8% 8% 5% 20% 13% Leadership Engaging society Gifts of all people Discipleship Church structures 7% 12% 6% Promoting reconciliation Fullness of life Creation Group L We divided the priorities into categories most important, slightly less important and not so important. For most important, joint first was Serving the vulnerable (20%) and Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland (20%). Joint third was Making disciples (12.5%) and Exercising priority for the poor (12.5%). The least important were: Engaging with society 8%, Developing leadership 7%, Celebrating our place in the world church 6%, Caring for creation 4.5%, Releasing the gifts of all the people 3.5%, Promoting reconciliation 3%, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness 2%, and Renewing church structures and practices 1%. 35% 40% Most important Slightly less important Not so important 25% 22

23 All groups Gifts Church structures Ministry Engaging society Reconciliation Priority for poor Fullness of life World church Leadership Creation Serving the vulnerable Making disciples Group A 8.8% 10% 10% 5% 5% 8.7% 10% 10% 8.7% 8.8% 10% 5% B 6.8% 6.7% 3.5% 18% 2% 3.5% 6.7% 5% 5% 6.8% 18% 18% C 9% 10% 14% 7.5% 4% 7.5% 10% 7.5% 9% 8% 6% 7.5% D 3% 15% 9% 3% 9% 8% 45% 8% E 20% 3% 15% 4% 7% 20% 3% 20% 4% 4% F 13.8% 5% 2.5% 10% 5% 13.7% 5% 10% 5% 13.8% 2.5% 13.7% G 7.5% 15% 2.5% 15% 2.5% 2.5% 15% 2.5% 7.5% 15% 7.5% 7.5% H 2% 20% 1% 2% 4% 2% 5% 5% 5% 50% 2% 2% I 15% 20% 10% 20% 5% 10% 10% 10% J 9% 8% 8% 16.5% 4% 6% 7% 7% 6% 16.5% 6% 6% K 12.5% 20% 4.5% 7% 6% 2% 12.5% 3% 8% 20% 1% 3.5% L 5% 20% 9% 6% 4% 2% 13% 7.5% 12% 6.5% 8% 7% 23

24 3.4 The core priorities The following are some of the comments made by delegates of the assembly when asked their thoughts on each of the priorities Making Disciples Mission and outreach Telling people about Jesus Told to do this in the Bible 10 out of 10 priority, but doesn t mean a lot of money should need to be spent This can be done by individuals giving time at events Ties in with everything Serving the vulnerable Covers a lot of people Serves to bring community together A form of outreach itself t s a Biblical point and a good thing to do CrossReach (Social Care Council) 8.5 out of 10 priority, but more likely to need money than Making Disciples Caring for creation Environmental concerns Depends on where your church is rural or urban Looking after nature is important, but not a priority 5.5 out of 10 priority 24

25 Can address this issue without spending much money Fairtrade Developing leadership Important in helping towards making disciples Leaders help disciples grow and make new disciples 9 out of 10 priority spend more money on this than on making disciples Celebrating our place in the world church Low expense? Depends on meaning Supporting/twinning with another church Ecumenical events locally Sponsoring children, supporting missionaries 6.5 out of 10 priority Praying for other churches in the world Raising awareness of difficulties in other countries for Christians Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness Church based support services Fun events Church being a loving presence Personal taking what you can from services 6.5 out of 10 priority It s about building ownership 25

26 3.4.7 Exercising priority for the poor Overlaps with Serving the vulnerable Difficult to do both large and small scale Good form of outreach, 8.5 out of 10 priority A lot of priority congregations improve community work Priority for the poor should be central Promoting reconciliation Between churches and denominations Good witness (John Chalmers) to be seen as peacemakers Raising awareness and reducing ignorance Social events bringing people together Lots of money in this already 4.5 out of 10 priority Forgiveness, agenda of peace Engaging with society Offering free stuff is good but find a balance Use social media free! Events can run on volunteers 8 out of 10 priority not always needing money Important running Christian/non-Christian based events to encourage more people in Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland Costly but important! 9 out of 10 priority 26

27 Only the Church of Scotland does this Renewing church structures and practices Jobs for people training others Keeping technology up to date to engage people is expensive Updating Alpha courses Up to church to renew our practices 7.5 out of 10 priority Realising the gifts of all the people Encouragement and training Develop leadership Good example is Suzi Farrant doing youth work 8.5 out of 10 priority 3.5 Collation of results Each group came up with such different suggestions that delegates understood for themselves how difficult it must be to decide what money goes where. After the discussion the results were collated although we were unsure how useful this was given all the groups had tackled the issue in different ways with different interpretations of the core priorities. Enabling ministry in every part of Scotland 17%, Serving the vulnerable 13%, Exercising priority for the poor 11%, Developing leadership 9%, Engaging with society 8%, Releasing the gifts of all the people 8%, Making disciples 7%, Renewing church structures and practices 6%, Promoting reconciliation 6%, Discovering and encouraging life in all its fullness 5%, Caring for creation 5%, Celebrating our place in the world church 5%. 27

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30 4. How we can do ministry intergenerationally The third discussion session to take place was looking at how we can do ministry intergenerationally. The hope for this discussion was to learn from each others intergenerational experiences as well as our partnership with the Guild and then to consider how this could work in the church on a national and local level. 4.1 What do different generations look like? To begin the discussion delegates were asked in their small groups to think about what people from different generations are like using pictures, words or play-doh. We used play-doh to make a star because they are all stars, and all stars are unique. They might appear different and be older or wiser or younger, but they re all unique. Our play-doh is interwoven, because they re both individual, but together. We have grandparents - they are the foundation of the church. The parents and middle aged people are the role models and carers for the young people. The young adults are the energy in the church and they promote the change; they can be seen as the windows of the church. People also see them as children, literally children, of God. They can also be seen as the way the church operates. We used play-doh to make a ladder. Everyone puts themselves in a different place, but in amongst us there are different generations people who re working, people who re still at school - but all the generations are together on a ladder. We looked at generation as being like a tree. At the top we have new growth buds which represent the young people - they get a lot of attention for being young and gorgeous! As you get further down, there is the trunk 30

31 and the roots, they bring up the nutrients for the young people to grow. But the young people collect the sunlight to help the roots grow, so we need each other. 4.2 Where and how do different generations mix well? In small groups delegates were asked to consider where and how different generations mix well. The responses were very varied: Before, and after, and round about, church services themselves. Some of my best chats with the older generation are before or after the service at Tea and Coffee. Christmas Eve, because no one s worrying about anything because Santa s coming and everyone wants to talk. At Heart and Soul or nationwide Presbytery events, where people work together. At different social events for fundraising, where we re gathered for a sole purpose. My church has a Pancake Event and there s fun and games for all ages quizzes for the adults and colouring-in for the children. 31

32 I think they work well where there s a balance of numbers, it s better than when they re outnumbered. At home and in family settings. Music is a great way to come together. Big celebrations like weddings and ceilidhs are a good chance to mix - if you like dancing! When you re outside in a natural environment - maybe a walk or gardening, so you re not in your own space. Through sport Over food (especially cake!) Funerals and weddings. In crisis. Guild and NYA partnership. 32

33 4.3 Is intergenerational ministry important? Delegates were invited to consider if it is important that different generations in the church mix, and why/why not. Responses included: Yes, everyone brings a different gift/talent/perspective. More ideas. We can all learn from one another - can t do it alone. Knowledge and life experiences shared. This is how the Bible started generations passing on stories. Older generation have experience and know how, younger generation can bring fresh ideas. Regenerate older groups/encourage young people to get involved. Can add depth varied conversation. Mix equals richness. The mixture of people benefits both old and young. If church message is to be inclusive and united, we have to mirror that within ourselves. Practice what we preach. Don t need to mix all the time. It s also good, and easier, to share with your own age. In decision making it s really important not too necessary at other times, but good. When opinions and policy have to be discussed it s good to have representative views. Generations tend to have shared opinions it s good to have these challenged. Makes getting involved in certain activities/groups less scary. Reduces divisions. Yes, we have collective goals. Can t function if separate. For me it s always been very important that different generations mix. Mostly as an educational thing. We can help older people with technology. I learnt the saxophone from a 92 year old man in my church. Hearing their stories is really important. 33

34 It s important as it helps to get rid of prejudice. Good mixing can promote harmony in our churches. It s important in worship to feel comfortable and secure. So making harmony between the generations is important. It s important despite the age gap, there are similarities across the spectrum. We thought that we always refer to the church as a family, and if you think of your own family you all mix you don t ignore your Granny when she walks in! 4.4 How can we best accomplish intergenerational ministry? Perceptions need to be challenged and attitudes changed for generations to work well together. The benefits of engaging with all ages should be celebrated and young people should be supported and encouraged to get more involved in the wider church on value rather than just through tokenism. Quite often when we try to be intergenerational we see inclusion of a young person on a Committee because they re a young person. That s quite tokenistic. This should be accomplished through non-exclusion. Trying to actively not exclude them. People of different generations have different skills, ideas and perspectives. The Assembly believe these qualities should be utilised to procure more ideas and to add depth to conversation and discussion, as generations tend to share similar views it would good to have these challenged. Generations could learn from each other s knowledge and experience to benefit both the young and the young at heart. I was paired with a retired Session Clerk for a leadership course and we kept meeting up when the course had ended. I can talk to her about 34

35 anything. She s really wise and easy to talk to. It s made me realise that there are a lot of other older people in my church who ve got amazing stories. Young people could teach the older generations how to use social media through encouragement and enthusiasm. This would establish friendships between the age groups. In our church we ve brought everyone together through music. For special occasions like Pentecost the older and younger people and our choir come together, and perform one or two pieces. It s really nice to catch up and know you re all there to sing together. There s no separation - everyone s there as one choir. There are too many age categories for events within the Church just think how often the children are actually visible during a service of worship therefore we need more mixed age events such as film nights, Messy Church, holiday clubs and more grandparents bringing along their grandchildren to Sunday school. 35

36 In my church it would be a good idea to mix generations. The kids in our church go straight through to the Hall, but I think they should be mixing with the families. The Assembly believe that young people should also be reaching out to get involved in more church events making them whole church occasions and to engage in learning opportunities where available. For example a Bible study group with a theme that would be relevant to every age group. Churches should also encourage young people to volunteer to help run events. A mechanism in which all ages can support is prayer for our church to be more intergenerational and more representative in return. 4.5 Intergenerational ministry at a national level To encourage intergenerational at a national level the Church must support young people to take leadership roles. This could be achieved by ensuring all Presbyteries have a youth representative at the General Assembly. Having young people at the General Assembly may help steer discussions even if they are unable to vote. Delegates felt that Church councils should include a mix of different age groups. To do so we must educate young people about the different committees/councils in the Church as there is an apparent lack of awareness amongst the youth of the Church. Therefore education of Church structures at earlier stages would encourage openness and inclusiveness for all. Another suggestion was that a mentoring scheme could be introduced, where all new council members get paired with a more experienced member to learn from their knowledge and experience. This could be reversed by the young person sharing knowledge for example of social media to better advertise and communicate works of the council to a wider 36

37 audience. A similar process could be adapted in churches for groups or as life mentors. Recently as a Church, we ve been better at getting people involved, but I think the church needs to work better on their attitudes, rather than on what they re doing. Several young people have been nominated and accepted to councils simply because they re young. I think the church need to address their attitude. Young and old can work together and this is extremely beneficial to both parties especially when we share a common goal, for example fundraising or celebrations, where our similarities and differences are focused. The National Youth Assembly have developed a working partnership with the Guild, collectively supporting each together whilst striving to improve intergenerational work in the Church of Scotland. The Convener of the Guild, Kay Keith was invited to attend this year s NYA as a small group 37

38 leader, which many delegates believed was invaluable. The Assembly would encourage that other national courses, events and conferences are advertised to a younger generation and perhaps some young people could be invited to speak and share their thoughts. A national resource on good practice and suggestions of how to have a more intergenerational focus would be welcomed and beneficial as a starting point for churches to enhance their procedures. The resource could be utilised to include a more representative mix of perspectives and encourage ministers to adopt this outlook. This could include encouraging young people to take more leadership roles, including exploring calling for ministry. We were talking about how it can be quite daunting if there are Groups in your church dominated by older people, you might not want to join them. But if there were some national resources, then it might not be as scary. Like how to lead a Bible Study. Finally, the youth delegates would like to see the Guild become more involved at the youth assembly weekend through seminars and discussion groups. The delegates would like more time spent with those who are not youth delegates as this would encourage different perspectives and views on the discussion topics. 4.6 The missing generation To conclude the discussion, we addressed the issue or the missing generation within our church that is felt by many young people. We often focus on the polar opposites when discussing intergenerational work, however, it is vital we do not overlook the needs of those who fall into the middle age category. We must ensure we engage with them in meaningful ways, striving to ensure their needs are met whilst benefitting from all they have to offer. Intergenerational ministry is about blending all generations together rather than just focussing on the young and the old. 38

39 The Assembly held intergenerational work in high regard. Many people left feeling inspired having heard an idea they could try out in their church at home to help bridge the gap between the generations and promote a family feeling within our own congregations. 5. How we can support Christians in the Middle East For our final discussion which was about the current situation in the Middle East and what we can do about it the Assembly were delighted to welcome Kenny Rogers who gave us an invaluable input from his first-hand experience. Fourteen delegates had also travelled to that area. With the overview provided of the various conflicts and problems faced by our brothers and sisters whose lives are affected we were able to see how these issues affect our church and neighbours, and lead us to see what we can do to make a change. Some words used to describe the situation were: Hell Brutal Despair Why? Human Savage Hopeless Relentless Hurt 39

40 5.1 How can we as individuals, and a church, support our brothers and sisters around the world who are facing persecution? The first thing we can all do is pray, which could be both individually and collectively. Before our discussion took place there was a worship session. During this poignant but necessary reflective session, delegates were invited to take home candles and light them on the 24th of August 2014 joining Christians around the world in prayer for those affected by violence and war in and around Gaza. In our Group, we started off by saying we need to pray, and let them know we re praying for them; showing that solidarity and letting them know that despite all that s happened this week, we ve not forgotten about them. Delegates were encouraged by The Right Rev John Chalmers Peace Doves project. The promotion and involvement in sending paper peace doves to the Prime Minister, brought the subject of the Middle East into the hearts of congregations up and down the country and delegates were delighted to get the opportunity to be involved. We heard from the Moderator last night about sending paper doves - personally I d like to send some real doves! 40

41 In the same way delegates felt that lobbying government would help in providing support. We need to raise our voices, as an act of solidarity, within our own country. We all have one voice, but all of our voices together can have an influence. Delegates felt that as a church we should be supporting and endorsing various organisations, charities and appeals that are already working in situations of difficulty through donations and fundraising such as a place at the table and the Hadeel shop. We encourage everyone to instil hope through the responsible use of social media to raise well-informed awareness of the issues in the Middle East. While not having been in the Middle East, I have friends at Uni who were born in Iraq, so this is a very close issue, and one way we as a church can show solidarity and prayer is through Facebook things like the Nazarene symbols. Consider sending support, food, Bibles, and people to help them. In other countries, people risked their lives so that Christ might be glorified and worshipped. Face to face support is always welcomed, therefore delegates encouraged each other to find means to travel to visit our brothers and sisters. We think it s very important to support ministry that might be going on out there, because it looks like it s been a very intense situation for a long time. If you have experiences with people from the Middle East, tell their stories. Tell your stories, because they are the perspectives that are not being reported on. Try to find ways to make personal connections with the Middle East because, being here, it is easy to feel disconnected. Find ways to sponsor people to come to Scotland and put a face on the news story. Or vice versa, encourage visits from the Church to the Middle East. It s been going on for so long a lot of people do not understand the origin, just the fighting that is going on. 41

42 Delegates thought we could also demonstrate our support by continually educating ourselves, by raising awareness and by staying unbiasedly informed not just relying on popular media. Recognising the importance of keeping people informed and supporting those living through persecution the Assembly encourages ministers and other leaders to discuss, talk, preach and pray about the situation in their congregations. This is a subject that we should be hearing about in our congregations, ministers should be preaching on it. The more people are hearing about the situation the better. Given the issue is so large delegates saw importance in working with others from different denominations and indeed faiths. One of the most important things, I think, is that we don t just think of this as an issue for the separate denominations, but we unite together. The denominations should unite together and stand up for this. 42

43 People of different denominations and faiths could come together for one campaign. We were talking about how a lot of the Middle East focus is on Judaism and Christianity and we want to encourage dialogue between them in the Middle East, but we also need it here. It s not good to say: You over in the Middle East need to get it sorted we need to try and do this too. A final comment was we don t need a violent solution but it is quite difficult not to think of one. 5.2 What can we do to be peacemakers, not only in the Middle East, but also in our own communities around us? In thinking about how we can be peacemakers in the Middle East and our local communities delegates suggested supporting mission/groups/charities already in place using their resources and travel alongside them. Examples given included The Well in Glasgow, Place for Hope, Christian Aid, and Embrace the Middle East. In my own church, we ve got quite a diverse group. People have fled Syria and Jordan because they are Christian. They had to leave to protect themselves, but some people stayed in the community to try and protect the church. How can we integrate them and help them if they want to go back to help save their church? How can we provide opportunities for them to engage in their community back home, to help bring peace? Delegates were encouraged by Right Rev John Chalmers theme of respectful dialogue for his year in office and saw how this could be used more widely. Discussion which is not met with aggression or anger should be encouraged. Rather than worrying about whose fault it is, we need to try and work to solutions. There is a person in my group from South Africa. She was saying she doesn t get attached to a country, but focuses on what she feels is the 43

44 best way to do something. Another person in my group was brought over from Pakistan for his own safety. I just wanted to share that we have people here with completely different views of what is going on in these countries. We need to not be silent or afraid to speak up about big issues, and also little issues, and challenging stigma in our communities, and making space for conversations in our communities. Delegates would encourage individuals and local churches to get involved in interfaith dialogue by first acknowledging that people of other religions could be equally worried about the situation. Violence creates fear, but fear also creates violence. Not knowing about one another s faiths is creating fear. We need to make sure we educate ourselves and have no fear of the unknown. Delegates recognised that as Christians we should remember scripture and try to follow Christ s example by loving our neighbours. We can all start by just being nice and using a language of acceptance rather than difference. Seeing the importance of being properly informed delegates encourage the viewing of reports from other areas, for example, Al Jazeera, in order to further unbiased education and reduce prejudice. I think we need to educate ourselves we need to understand the difficulties facing our brothers and sisters in the Middle East. Then we can speak more clearly. We were chatting about the media portrayal and how context is not always explained. We re all engaged in different levels of media and we could do a lot to contextualise for those who don t know. Lastly delegates felt that as a we church should celebrate any successes whether big or small. 44

45 It s not just about being peacemakers, but celebrating and saying if we re doing something that is making a difference. 5.3 What do we think when we hear that Christianity may die out in the region where it was birthed? How do we respond to that? It s devastating, it s heart-breaking, it s shocking, to think that the place where our faith began, is the place that s being threatened most. But I d like to share a story. When the communist state was declared in Russia, the Russian state continued to be an atheist state. The cathedral was destroyed, but it was rebuilt, because in the face of intense persecution and difficulties, the Christian faith flourished, unknown and unseen by the state. China is a communist state where it s illegal to be a Christian, but there are more Christians there, than anywhere else in the world. Our faith is resilient. We have a good God who says that: If I am for you, no-one is against you. That is the hope we have. Some delegates thought we should care more about helping humanity in 45

46 general rather than any particular religious population, whilst recognising that it is wrong that people can be forced to deny or abandon their faith. I think the thing we have to concentrate on, is that it s not perhaps so vital to focus on a single religion, but actually to focus on humanity, in terms of how we treat each other we need to start looking at human beings as members of a family, whether that be a family of faith, nationality or the human race. The threat to humanity frightens me more than a particular faith dying out. I m not so sure that if we let other humans be treated as people who don t matter, that there can be any come back. Delegates know Christ to be everywhere even when our hearts are breaking for our brothers and sisters who may be forced to take another religion or leave their homes. They challenged each other to get involved and try as much as they can to see an end to the conflict and suffering. Jesus didn t focus on geography, it wasn t about where you were from. He travelled everywhere and spoke to everybody. There are people suffering and dying and having to make awful choices. It breaks my heart that Christians might have to become something else or move. 46

47 6. Other parts to the weekend The main function of the NYA is to be a platform for young adults to voice their opinion and actively participate in decision making within the Church of Scotland. This is carried out through the discussions which form the majority of the programme. There are however other aspects to the NYA event which are important for the forming of community and the equipping of delegates. 6.1 Small groups Fun house All delegates are placed into small groups for the weekend, generally based on age and led by other delegates. Most delegates come to NYA as the only person from their congregation so these small groups enable new people to find their feet quickly and strong bonds are often formed with some friendships going on to last many years. On the opening night there is always a chance for delegates to have some fun and get to know one another. This year this took the form of a fun house challenge reminiscent of the 90s TV show! In small groups delegates received a list of challenges which they had a limited time to complete to earn money from the COSY bank. Some challenges were for an individual of the group to complete, 47

48 others were whole group activities, whilst still others involved knowledge of various parts of the Church of Scotland. Gargle a hymn so it can be guessed correctly. Have your entire small group jumping on the bouncy castle for 1 min without anyone falling over. Name as many presbyteries as possible. Hold a small group press up for 10 seconds, without anyone s feet touching the ground. As a small group perform head, shoulders, knees and toes in a language other than English. 48

49 6.2 Workshops Throughout the weekend, various insightful workshops were offered which were split into five streams: 'Pray', 'Train', 'Do', 'Bible' and 'Church'. Delegates could move between streams as they wished, or stay in one and follow the theme through. Pray included workshops on new and imaginative ways of engaging in prayer and how to lead prayers in a congregation. Train focused on the skills needed to get involved in different aspects of local church life. Do focused on ways of becoming more involved in church life, such as attending presbytery meetings, and included a workshop which centred on individual callings and vocations. Bible included workshops exploring different methods for interpreting, reading and engaging with the text, how it all fits together and what it has to say about alcohol. Church looked at different aspects such as fresh expressions and church councils/committees and how we could get involved ourselves. 6.3 Sabbath activities Responding to feedback from previous years that the programme was just too full the Sunday afternoon this year was arranged to allow the delegates some sabbath time. Various options were put on but delegates were free to choose what they did, if anything indeed some used the time to go for a wee nap! Options included having a bounce on the bouncy castle, playing giant inflatable twister, arts and craft, team games, using the prayer tent for some quiet reflection and just simply spending time in the grounds with friends. 49

50 6.4 Fundraising masquerade ball Our Gala Dinner on the Sunday evening took the form of a masquerade ball with a bbq and a ceilidh. This was inspired by the thought that we should not have to hide ourselves within our own congregations. It was an opportunity for delegates to get dressed up and celebrate being part of a community where everyone is valued for who they are. Rt. Rev John Chalmers attended and spoke very movingly about how valued The National Youth Assembly is. There was a very competitive game of crazy golf played by the two Moderators to which Rt Rev John Chalmers was able to show off his skills from the golf course and won the battle. Our Moderator, Rachel is clearly more a hockey player than a golfer. Each year, the Gala Dinner fundraises for a different charity. This year we chose to support Perth Prison Visitor s Centre, one of CrossReach s projects. We were able to raise

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53 6.5 Worship Worship is always an integral part of an NYA event and this year was no exception. A particular highlight was when Rev Michael Mair a delegate of the NYA led us. We celebrated the sacrament of communion together, with the small group leaders invited to break the bread and share the wine with their groups on the premise that communion is for everyone. It was very special to have a young person lead us in the sacrament of Holy Communion and for small groups who had journeyed together for the weekend to partake together. 6.6 Visitors This year visitors from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland were invited to attend the National Youth Assembly. PCI have their own version of a youth assembly called SPUD (speaking, participating, understanding and deciding). We were joined by their Convener Helen Macaulay and Secretary Owen Wilson, accompanied by Carol Johnston, the Young Adults Development Officer PCI. They were able to contribute to our discussions and were really helpful in sharing ideas based on their experiences. We were able to learn from them about how SPUD operates, giving us ideas to feed into future NYA events. We are very grateful for them coming and hope to build on 53

54 this new friendship as we develop our work with young adults in decision making in both denominations. We were also delighted throughout the weekend to welcome a variety of people who came to lead workshops, take part in discussion sessions and join us for the masquerade ball. The event wouldn t have been the same without them so we are extremely grateful to them for giving up their time. 54

55 7. A year as moderator Rachel Hutcheson If you ve managed to reach my section in our lengthy supplementary report then I must thank you for taking such a keen interest in the work of The National Youth Assembly. This next section is a brief personal reflection of the last nine months as Youth Moderator. As you may have guessed this year has been exceptionally busy! Here are just a few highlights. 7.1 The NYA event I began my service as Moderator by leading delegates through a long weekend of discussion, debate, worship, reflection, learning and celebration. This was particularly challenging as we moved to a new venue that had a few unexpected surprises in store. Thankfully we had a great team who pulled together and overcame every challenge presented. 7.2 Youth Reps After the NYA family departed from Gartmore the twenty NYA Youth Reps were called for their first meeting. Many of the youth reps were new to the role and had a lot to learn. I decided to split the group into four focus 55

56 groups for writing our reports. One group for each of the topics discussed at NYA: worship, money, intergenerational work and The Middle East. Our first meeting together turned out to be very fruitful and I soon realised we had a very special year ahead of us. 7.3 Future of NYA funding As well as preparing our own report for The Blue book a group of four young people joined together with four slightly older people to try and determine a plan to secure the future for the NYA. This was a very prosperous relationship and we will be delighted to report our conclusion to The General Assembly in May. 7.4 Service of reconciliation Reflecting back to September when Scotland took part in the independence referendum I was privileged to be invited to attend the service of reconciliation in St. Giles Cathedral as a guest of The Moderator, Rt. Rev John Chalmers. This was a real honour and I was truly heart warmed to see our national Kirk serving our nation at such a pivotal point in history. 56

57 7.5 Ice bucket challenge Something I look back and laugh at is when one of my chaplains, Rev. Michael Mair, who I thought I had appointed to look out for and guide me through my year, nominated John Chalmers and I, the two Moderators of The Church of Scotland for The Ice Bucket Challenge, in aid of Motor Neurone Disease Research. I would like to point out my ice bucket challenge was far tougher than John s. You can view both ice bucket challenges at the following links: vb / /?type=2&theater 57

58 7.6 NYA tent at Heart & Soul 2015 A personal triumph for me was when The National Youth Assembly managed to secure our first ever stand at Heart and Soul. Something as simple as pitching a small tent to show case the opportunities available through the NYA, one would have thought to be fairly straightforward. I can assure you, navigating your way through The Church of Scotland s councils, secretaries, conveners and policies is not a task to be underestimated. 7.7 Christmas Party In December I organised a Christmas party for The Church of Scotland Youth (COSY). This was held in The Rainy Hall. Between forty and fifty folk gathered for a very pleasant afternoon of food, fellowship and friendship. There was of course some Christmas party games which provided much hilarity. I really hope this event will continue and become an annual tradition for COSY. 58

59 7.8 Christmas video message As Christmas approached John Chalmers decided we should come together to share our New Year message urging people to keep the power of prayer in the forefront of their minds as we struggle through so much anger and strife at home and abroad. This can be found at: Speaking engagements with the Guild As part of the NYA partnership with the Guild I have been invited to speak at a number of Guild meetings, including the Guild AGM in Dundee. The most recent of occasions was at a rally in my home town, Inverness Speaking to presbyteries I was very conscious that many people across our Kirk have not heard of the National Youth Assembly and the work we do. In an effort in inform and remind presbyteries I wrote to every Presbytery, seeking an opportunity for young people to visit a presbytery meeting to share our news. The hope 59

60 being our enthusiasm would filter through the Presbytery Court to the Kirk Session Court, into the congregations and reach as many young people as possible Twitter I ve recently created a twitter account. I hope to create a following to help promote the work of the NYA, help folk to get to know me as the NYA Moderator, keep people up to date, share news etc. I have almost one hundred followers. I aim to have a minimum of five hundred by the time I finish my term as Moderator in August. If you would like to follow me my name is Kirk Young 7.12 The Moderators Munroe I m look forward to climbing Ben Lomond as part of Christian Aids fundraising campaign celebrating seventy years of service. Ben Lomond has been branded The Moderators Munro and John and I hope to have one hundred or so folk climbing with us. Jointly John and I hope to raise

61 7.13 What next? As you can see The Youth Reps and I have been exceptionally busy and the next few months look to be even more hectic. I will be delivering the NYA report to the General Assembly, supporting the NYA tent at Heart & Soul, discharging the youth reps, thanking my clerk, John Haston, for all his hard work and support over the year, handing over the NYA moderator baton to Hannah Mary Goodlad not to mention finishing my degree and finding a job as a primary school teacher! 8. Youth reps Each year 18 people are selected from attendees at the youth assembly to serve alongside the NYA moderator and clerk as youth reps. Their role is to represent young people and the NYA in particular through the year, by attending presbytery meetings, continuing to work on things that came up at NYA and encouraging more young people to get involved. Of these 9 are chosen to represent NYA at the General Assembly alongside the NYA moderator. 8.1 Heather Palmer reflection At my very last youth assembly I decided that I felt ready and challenged to be a youth rep. I always thought that I wasn't confident enough but throughout the weekend I thought to myself I CAN DO THIS. I was then encouraged to put my name forward. I then attended some meetings and we always started with some worship and then we later discussed what we wanted included in our blue book report We also had other activities to take part in throughout the year which involved a Christmas get together for any person who had ever attended an 61

62 NYA youth assembly. We also found it important to send a letter to presbytery to show how important NYA is to young people in the Church of Scotland to give them their say and to hopefully encourage people to come forward as we feel that that it's not advertised greatly within the Church of Scotland. The youth reps are also still building a bond and relationships by attending some Guild meetings as speakers. As youth reps we ve have been invited to take part in the moderators Munro challenge and are trying to encourage others to join us. We also found that for the first time ever the NYA will be able to have their first tent at heart and soul which is very exciting Over all I have loved being a youth rep and will be sad when my time is up. 62

63 8.2 Fraser Ellis reflection Over the past year, those who are elected to represent the NYA, 'Youth Reps', have carried out a myriad of tasks to support the Moderator and Clerk. Most of these tasks are our regular meetings in Stirling. This year compared to last, I managed to get along to more of them and got more involved in the discussions we had and writing the NYA reports. For the reports (blue book and supplementary) we were put into teams: Finance, Worship, Middle East and Inter-generational. I was in the Finance group and we had to collate the various facts, opinions and responses of the NYA back in August Luckily enough I think the finance group had the easiest job as we finished our section in record time. Whilst the reports are our main task, I also attended my first NYA Planning Meeting in October at Arbroath, which was amazing. Part of the planning meeting included making a self portrait for people to make positive comments about the person and discussing what the mission statement of the NYA should be. It was a shame I had to leave early to facilitate at a Boys' Brigade course, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The real coup de gras of the year was having our Christmas meeting and party in New College, Edinburgh. We even had a tour around the Assembly Halls where the General Assembly convenes and a Christmas Carol singalong. In addition many youth reps will probably agree with me when I say we also do lots locally, whether that's being involved in Church of Scotland committees, COSY groups, Christian Aid, youth/social work or Christian Unions. 63

64 8.3 Naomi Dornan reflection My experience of being an NYA Youth Rep over the past year has felt jam packed, encouraging and often overwhelming. This has been my first year at the National Youth Assembly, after experiencing many years of feeling Called to do more and having a sense of what I needed to do, but not how I could do it. Perhaps by a natural turn of fate or a cataclysmic act of God, I found myself in the most nurturing of explosively beautiful situations, amongst my unashamed peers. From the opening night's worship, my first experience of this kind, I had a sense that no matter what was about to come my way, I had to grab the opportunity with both hands. Then the subject of Youth Reps surfaced and although I felt too new to put myself forward, I was encouraged to be a new recruit by our Moderator. From the initiation of Gartmore, my experience as a young person in the Church of Scotland has gone from strength to strength. As a Youth Rep I have been able to volunteer my time and talents to help the Kirk I so greatly love. This has all been continuously championed and supported, by our wonderful Moderator, Clerk and Suzi. Not only has my knowledge of the behind the scenes activities of the Church increased, but it has bolstered my appreciation of those willing to carry out the Lord's work. We have worshipped, prayed and had Holy Communion together, and I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to call these glorious people my friends. Their dedication has been steadfast and sure and their encouragement has been nothing short of extraordinary. We have had the opportunity to use our voice as young people in the Church of Scotland, and have been most encouraged by the mutual desire to continue to work with The Guild. We have committed ourselves to some 64

65 promising, inclusive resources, and are setting the trend for this to be the norm in years to come. Personally, I have been able to share my experience a Youth Rep with St. Andrews Guild at their AGM and to highlight the opportunities for young people within the Church. My involvement as a Youth Rep has enabled me to contribute as a young adult and to prove that we are interested and look forward to being part of the future of the Kirk. It has also enabled me to become part of the wider Church by joining the Church and Society Council. My life over the past year has been completely consumed by the Church and I wouldn't have it any other way. Finally, I have found what I love and have been able to appreciate and understand it. My only regret is that it has arrived so late that I will only be able to experience the National Youth Assembly for another three years, but, oh what a three years they will be!! I look forward in faith, for my time is in God's hands. The National Youth Assembly has been my first true form of fellowship in its most natural form. 65

66 9. Guild Since becoming an honorary Guild group in 2013, we have been looking to find ways in which the National Youth Assembly can work together with the Guild particularly to encourage Intergenerational ministry within the Church of Scotland. We decided that one of the best ways to do this would be to lead by example. 9.1 Guild at NYA 2014 Kay Keith the convenor of the Guild was invited to attend NYA 2014 as a small group leader journeying with a group of delegates throughout the weekend. As we look towards producing a joint report on intergenerational ministry for the General Assembly 2016, it was also fitting that one of the discussion topics for NYA 2014 event was intergenerational ministry. During the discussion delegates declared a desire to work more closely with The Guild, paying particular heed to putting on intergenerational events, creating spaces for all age discussions at local level and sharing fundraising events. "It's about recognising skills - we actually can do this!" - Kay Keith Across the board, Kay was a popular part of the National Youth Assembly, and inviting members of the Guild to take part in NYA events is something we would like to see continue for years to come. 9.2 Guild and youth reps joint meeting Members of the Guild leadership team were invited to meet with the youth reps for a joint meeting in January We came together, initially, as two very individual groups but once conversation flowed over tea and sweets, we were unified. We gathered in smaller groups to discuss how we could work together, and what this work together could actually achieve. With a variety of suggestions made, there 66

67 were very clear themes, and similarities emerging. We decided to work towards three main objectives: Skills Exchange whereby Guilds recruit the younger members of their churches to come in and share their skills by teaching the Guilds how to use such things as smartphones and social media, and in return, Guilds using their skills to teach younger people how to bake or sew on buttons or draw. This is an idea which we hope to pilot at the upcoming Youth Assembly in August, and if it proves successful, resources may be produced for people to use across the country in their own local areas. Joint drama this is the idea that a small group of Guild members and young people come together to perform a small sketch, possibly at Heart and Soul, NYA or the Guild AGM. A suggestion was to look to perform a revised version of Mike Gibb s Mother Of All Peoples, based on the life of Mary Slessor, since it is the centenary of her death. Guild Theme Pack as a way for the Youth Reps to become more involved with the Guild, we have been invited to help with the production of one of the Guild s upcoming theme packs. This would include ideas for readings, ideas for hymns, discussion topics, and resources. 67

68 9.3 Visits to local & presbyterial Guild groups Members of the NYA were invited to speak at the St Andrews Presbyterial Guild AGM. Here, Suzi (young people and young adult s development worker for Mission & Discipleship Council) told those in attendance of what the National Youth Assembly has achieved in the past 21 years, paying particular attention to it's successes, the inclusive nature of it's work and where we hope to take it from here. Naomi Dornan (one of the youth reps) answered questions about her role, the value of the NYA as she had experienced it and what she thinks about the place of young people in the church. Several local Guild groups have invited members of the NYA to speak at meetings. Those relatively nearby have enjoyed the chance to meet members of the Guild and share with them something of what the NYA is about and what it is like as a young person in the church today. 9.4 Joint report to GA 2016 Plans are under way to form a joint working group, whose purpose will be to compile the report that was requested to be presented at General Assembly 2016 about intergenerational work in the Church. 10. Scottish Youth Parliament 10.1 SYP and the NYA For the past two years the NYA have had the privilege to be involved in the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP), a youth led organization whose mission is to improve the lives of young people (14-25) in Scotland whilst remaining politically independent. This is a great opportunity for the church to get its voice heard in the wider 68

69 community and be seen as politically engaged and active. It has a platform to showcase and inspire all its great work on a national scale. There has been great enthusiasm and interest from other MSYP s to hear what the church is doing relating to the latest political issues allowing the Church of Scotland to be celebrated and recognized with the younger generations as current and relevant NYA MSYPs Members are democratically elected with 2 MSYP s from each constituency in Scotland and some representatives from voluntary organisations like ourselves. The very first two NYA MSYPs serving for 2013/15 were Hannah- Mary Goodlad and Rachel Walker, with the next two for 2015/17 recently being elected as Rachel Walker (re-elected) and Andrew McPherson. Hannah Mary Goodlad Rachel Walker Andrew MacPherson 10.3 SYP sittings Each MSYP serves a two year term where they are expected to attend national sittings of which there are 3 each year. At these sittings motions are debated, talks are given by political representatives and subject committees meet to discuss issues relevant to certain issues. Rachel has been active in the Social Justice Committee, focusing her efforts on improving food banks for those who need it. 69

70 10.4 SYP campaigns The SYP runs campaigns selected by the MSYPs on issues effecting young people now; previous successes include Votes at 16 and care, fair, share (for young carers) which both involved lobbying parliament to change legislation to improve the lives of our constituents. The current campaign is Poverty, See it, Change it, a campaign that in many ways mirrors the views of the church so our newly elected MSYPs hope to get really involved in the near future. SYP also run awareness campaigns like aye, naw, mibbe which encouraged young people to register and vote in the Scottish referendum and We-CTV a competition to raise the awareness of crime in each local authority. Rachel has been a champion on both of these campaigns facilitating, leading and preparing sessions all over Scotland Political engagement There are further opportunities as an MSYP to get involved in the wider political sphere including consultations with the Scottish Parliament on legislation relevant to young people, as well as attending events representing the views of constituents. Rachel has welcomed these opportunities and been to 4 consultation events and two national celebrations further spreading the message that the young people in our kirk are keen to engage with politics and can influence change. I have been really proud to represent the views of young people in the Church of Scotland on such a big stage and have been supported greatly in anything we try to do which is fantastic. It is a great honour to start this partnership at a time where society and young people are so politically engaged so I am really excited to see where this journey will take us. Rachel Walker 70

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72 11. Conclusion The NYA is something that the Church can remain proud of. Young people continue to come to this event, either as a veteran or as a first time delegate. The delegates are quick to form community; a community that loves and cares for its members, a community that constantly evolves according to its needs, a community that is passionate about God, and a community that exists to give young people a voice in the Church. The 2015 NYA will be held at Gartmore House in Stirlingshire and will take place on August 2015 with discussions about climate change, child exploitation, the confessions of our faith and the General Assembly. It is open to all year olds with a connection to the Church of Scotland with 140 places available on a first come first served basis. Bookings are available via RACHEL HUTCHESON: Moderator JOHN HASTON: Clerk SCOTT BUCHAN: Youth rep NAOMI DORNAN: Youth rep FRASER ELLIS: Youth rep SHAHAN GOHAR: Youth rep HANNAH MARY GOODLAD: Youth rep RACHEL HIGGINS: Youth rep JAMES HYMAN: Youth rep ANDREW MACPHERSON: Youth rep FIONA MARSHALL: Youth rep SOPHIE MCCLEMENTS: Youth rep VICTORIA MCCLEMENTS: Youth rep CATRIONA MUCKART: Youth rep HEATHER PALMER: Youth rep GRANT PETRIE: Youth rep ALLY STARK: Youth rep LINDSAY THOMSON: Youth rep RACHEL WALKER: Youth rep CATRIONA WOOD: Youth rep 72

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